Prosopography, History and Legal Anthropology: Two Comments on the Belgian Case

Abstract

Prosopographical databases are of major interest for research work. As resources enabling a significant saving of time, they provide undeniable value to the conclusions put forward in the analysis, which are far more reliable than those drawn from a classic manual examination and interpretation of sources. Lastly, the material and human means necessary to achieve such databases have to be dealt with (J.C.Farcy).The common denominator in the three different types of government in these case studies—annexation, colonialism, occupation—is foreign rule: Belgium under French and German rule, and King Leopold and Belgium as foreign rulers of Congo. The perspective of purity and contamination, in connection with (evolutionary) group dynamics provides an essential background for assessing the sociological and symbolic importance of the judiciary in a constellation of foreign rule (D.Venema).